Stage at diagnosis
a;ects the 5-year survival for
women with breast cancer ;1;

Although tremendous progress against cancer has been
made (see Table 2, p. 4and Table 3 , p. 6), the number of
Americans receiving a cancer diagnosis each year has
been increasing steadily for the past four decades, and this
number is expected to rise signi;cantly, reaching almost

2. 4 million in 2035 ( 6). ;is projected increase is largelybecause cancer is, primarily, a disease of aging. Most cancerdiagnoses occur in those age 65 and older (7), and thisportion of the U.S. population is expected to double by2060 ( 8). High rates of obesity and continued use of tobaccoproducts by 18 percent of adults in the United States ( 9),both of which are linked to an elevated risk for numeroustypes of cancer ( 10, 11), are contributing to the problem.

;is rise in cancer cases is directly leading to an increase
in the number of Americans dying of cancer. In fact, it
is estimated that 585,720 people will die of some form of
cancer in 2014 ( 1). Unless more e;ective strategies for